Flare
by The WolvGambit
Summary: What if...reality and fantasy collided unknowingly and instead of stopping, they continued? Companion piece to Slow Burn. Tony/Pepper movieverse


Flare

Summary: What if...reality and fantasy collided unknowingly and instead of stopping, they continued? Companion piece to _Slow Burn_

Tony/Pepper (Movieverse)

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You arrive, unexpectedly and head for the bar. It feels normal, even after all this time, and you can't shake the feeling. You never liked these functions and you remember that your older personality, before captivity, usually drank himself into a stupor before having a nightcap with some willing woman. Now, you stand with the drink and listen to someone beside you ramble on about a meeting for some technical mumbo-jumbo when a hint of blue catches your eye.

Tanned skin, red hair, encased in a blue silky dress and you find yourself frozen. Sure, you have been celibate the whole time you've been back, thinking of little else than fixing your suit and avoiding meetings like the plague, but you're not dead. For once you, Tony Stark, are completely and utterly at a loss for coherent conversation as the face of your personal assistant, Pepper Potts, comes into view. The vision makes you swallow your words as you blindly shake the hand of the man beside you, quickly forgetting his words as you make your way towards her.

She asks you what you're doing here, her blue eyes widening in surprise as you compliment her. Words stream from her lips and you pay them no mind, completely enthralled by her beauty and feeling a stirring that you haven't felt since you came back. You find yourself asking if she wants to dance but you don't hear her reply as you drag her out onto the dance floor; wanting to be close to her, as close as possible.

Pepper amazes you as she tries to keep from meeting your gaze, avoiding your stare and looking around her in nervousness. It makes you smile inside because she seems so much more appealing and you know you're affecting her as much as she is you. Her beauty and grace make you wish you were an artist so you could paint her in all her glory.

You try to appease her, yet she won't let you. Trembling in your grasp, she continues dancing, continues muttering phrases and you just continue to admire her beauty; feeling a complete flare of heat every time your gazes lock and she gives a small forced smile before turning away.

Finally you decide to get out of the eyes of the public and utter the phrase 'get some air' which she concedes to. The temperature is comfortable as you lean against the wall and listen to her ramble on while you tell her it was 'innocent' and 'completely fine' but she ignores you before your gazes completely lock in one heated stare and you find yourself trailing your fingertips across her arm feeling goosebumps in its wake. You chastise yourself for everything stupid you've ever done where she's concerned. The late nights, the drinking, the one-night stands. At this point your mind is rewinding every single look she's ever given you when she has caught you with any of your many conquests you brought back. Now you wish to burn the bed to ashes. You haven't slept there since your return, you haven't had the will to bear it.

Pepper shivers and you know it's not from the cold. You've never felt so alive in your life accept for in this moment as you lean in then she leans in and everything leading up to this very second in time seems insignificant. Her fingertips trail across the casing of your arc generator firmly lodged in its metal housing in your chest, circling the device and then placing her hand flat on the surface. Heat surrounds you and before you know it desire flares to life once again and you swear that you've never _needed_ anyone so badly in your entire life. The gesture makes you tremble and you conclude that nobody else has ever made you feel this way. Lines of empty faces cloud your vision and then are swept away by the red haired beauty in front of you.

It doesn't seem real to you as your lips merge with hers and they are so much better than you ever imagined they could be. Sure, you can't go years with a woman like her and not notice her beauty but tragedy will make you realize what is really needed in life. In a flash of light you remember Yinsen, the man that gave you your second chance and come to the conclusion this wasn't something you should be wasting.

Fire settles in your groin and you are hard to the point of pain as you lift her leg around your hip to press yourself against her. Heat fills the space as she presses back and you hear a barely suppressed whimper as you deepen the kiss. However, before things can go any further she pulls away from you, lips swollen and you feel the loss immediately. You don't recognize your voice as you whisper her name on a ragged breath between her neck and shoulder before turning her against the concrete rail.

'_We can't...'_ You hear it in the background and she finally manages to disentangle herself from you and you don't want her to go but the look in her eyes nearly undoes you. In that single breathless second you realize she can't forgive you yet and your fists clench because you know exactly why. Your past comes back to haunt you and you didn't think that this was something that would happen between the two of you, at least not this fast.

Pepper walks away and you feel so defeated as you turn and face the lights of the city before you hearing her small gasped sob as she makes her final retreat back into the party. Maybe you didn't give her what she needed before, maybe you took advantage of her too much. This feels foreign to you as you continue to stare at the space she vacated. You're trying so hard to change, trying to be what she needs. The words from a few days before make you shudder as you gently tap on the cover of the one thing that's keeping you alive, the one thing that has been touched by her and you feel that you left a piece of yourself with her with those words.

**'I don't...have anyone but you.'**

It's so true and so very scary at the same time and you wonder if she has someone or if it's just you. The thought makes you frown for a moment before you place your hand fully on the reactor knowing that she has your heart that just lies beneath it. If only you weren't so blind before you may have been able to have had a chance now. But you know that you'll never forget the feel of her, the taste of her, or the warmth of her for the rest of your life and it makes you ache. Maybe someday she'll forgive you so you can start living instead of existing.


End file.
